Most of our Universe is Missing - Horizon (BBC2 9th Feb)
Horizon has been getting a reputation for programmes which are heavy on graphics and special effects and light on content. This programme may go some way to reversing the image. It was one of the best that I have seen for a long time.
The subject was dark matter and dark energy - the 95% of the universe that is not atoms and which ought to be there but no one has ever observed. The programme makers might have been justified in dealing with the absence of most of the universe in a portentous and dramatic fashion, but they wisely adopted a dry, humerous approach and it worked wonderfully. Any subject which no one has been able to observe presents a challenge for the special effects team and this may have been a blessing in disguise. From time to time, what looked like Rorschach ink blots appeared for no obvious reason. But mostly the programme concentrated on the scientists and let them do the explaining - which they did very well - achieving more with chalk and blackboard in 5 minutes than many computerised special effects achieve in an hour. Cosmology is not trivial, and a 50 minute programme is bound to leave the layman feeling that the some brains are made of a different substance altogether - but the principles came across amazingly clearly.
One of the characterstics of Horizon is that it does not have a presenter. We have seen a number of programmes recently which are presented by a famous or personable scientist - Richard Dawkins, Robert Winston, Kathy Sykes - and the result is that the presenter becomes as much the subject of the programme as the issue under discussion. This programme was narrated beautifully by Ian Holm, no doubt reading from a script written by others, but you would not have known it unless you bothered to read the credits. This left the scientists to speak for themselves and, on the whole, they did the profession credit.
So, here's hoping that this heralds a change of tack for Horizon. Highly recommended.
The subject was dark matter and dark energy - the 95% of the universe that is not atoms and which ought to be there but no one has ever observed. The programme makers might have been justified in dealing with the absence of most of the universe in a portentous and dramatic fashion, but they wisely adopted a dry, humerous approach and it worked wonderfully. Any subject which no one has been able to observe presents a challenge for the special effects team and this may have been a blessing in disguise. From time to time, what looked like Rorschach ink blots appeared for no obvious reason. But mostly the programme concentrated on the scientists and let them do the explaining - which they did very well - achieving more with chalk and blackboard in 5 minutes than many computerised special effects achieve in an hour. Cosmology is not trivial, and a 50 minute programme is bound to leave the layman feeling that the some brains are made of a different substance altogether - but the principles came across amazingly clearly.
One of the characterstics of Horizon is that it does not have a presenter. We have seen a number of programmes recently which are presented by a famous or personable scientist - Richard Dawkins, Robert Winston, Kathy Sykes - and the result is that the presenter becomes as much the subject of the programme as the issue under discussion. This programme was narrated beautifully by Ian Holm, no doubt reading from a script written by others, but you would not have known it unless you bothered to read the credits. This left the scientists to speak for themselves and, on the whole, they did the profession credit.
So, here's hoping that this heralds a change of tack for Horizon. Highly recommended.
posted by Mark Frank at 7:42 am
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